One from Column A
by Uncle Charlie
Summary: After his life was radically changed in a car accident, Danny never thought he'd amount to much, until he saw something happening in a tailor shop. Part of the Working Stiffs series.


You see a lot of strange things in New York City. I mean, there are skyscrapers so tall that they have their own weather and buildings so large you can live and work inside the same building and never come out. People can be cold and unforgiving, or they can be wonderful. In my life, it's been one and the same.

I was quite the athlete in high school. I was the star quarterback, the top hitter in baseball and the president of my class. I was voted the king of the senior prom and the most likely to succeed. I always had a date, always had friends, and always was the leader in any crowd. All my future was laid out in a neat path for me.

Then a car t-boned me one night. It shattered my left leg and right arm. I woke up in traction and realized that nothing was ever going to be the same. At first all my friends came to visit, but soon that trickled down to next to nothing. That's when I learned about what a true friend was.

There was this little mousy girl who always seemed to be around in school, but whom no one ever said anything to. When all the others stopped coming, she started. She was there to laugh with me when I had a good day and to cry with me when I had a setback. And believe me, there were more than a few of those.

Eventually, and with her help, I hobbled out of the hospital, but the reality of my situation was what truly crippled me. I'd never walk normally again and my ball playing days were over. I could barely hold a pencil in my right hand. Who was going to hire someone who couldn't even write his name?

The guy who hit me was drunk, there was no denying that he was at fault and the court agreed. I won some money, but my hospital bills ate most of it. People told me I was lucky to have that, but I would rather have had the use of my leg or hand again.

Somehow, amid all of this, I screwed up my courage and asked Sadie to marry me. To my utter amazement, she said yes. I didn't have any prospects and she knew the sort of life that awaited her, but she didn't care. And neither did I. I knew we'd make it.

We moved into an apartment that was so small, you had to step outside to change your mind, but it was ours and we were happy. Sadie got a job and I was left alone to my own devices. Mostly that meant reading, watching TV, practicing writing with my left hand, or just staring out the window. It wasn't much of an existence, but it was what I had.

I don't know what first caught my eye about the tailor shop. There was a hundred like it in the city. It was in a sub-basement of a multistory brownstone and it seemed to have a good amount of foot traffic. Then I started noticing something strange. The same people would go in and stay for hours. Sometimes they wouldn't come out at all for days. What the hell was going on in there? My first thought was it was a bookie joint, but that didn't feel right. Suddenly I had something to do.

"Sadie, it's the blond guy again." I made a tic in the notebook she'd just bought me. I had another five just like it.

"He's early today." She was busy frying eggs for breakfast. "Is that cutie with him?"

She meant the dark-haired guy who was frequently with the blond.

"Not today." I checked my schedule. "He's usually a little late on Mondays."

"He's not a self-starter like you." She put the plate in front of me and helped me exchange the pencil for a fork. She put the notebook aside so I wouldn't spill on it.

"Not much of a starter or finisher anymore," I mumbled as I ate. She'd already cut up my egg and toast for me. I ate with the dexterity of a one-year old. "More like a big baby."

"You are good for the long run, Danny. Don't let anyone else tell you different. I know you can do it, you just don't know what it is yet. God works in mysterious ways and He has a plan for you."

See why I love her? She's my world to me. I wish the world could see in me what she does. Maybe then they wouldn't be so fast to dismiss me.

"Thanks, sweetheart." I tried to sound like Bogie and she laughed.

"Who else is in today?"

Awkwardly, I reached for my notebook and she never moved to help me. "Let's see, stylish girl and the guy she's usually with."

"Do you think they're married?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe they are married to other people and they are having a secret rendezvous." I made my voice sound all mysterious and sexy, like I'd heard on the radio.

"At a tailor shop? He's a big spender. Maybe he's wooing her between stacks of pressed shirts." She picked up my plate and carried it to the sink. I would wash it later. I did as much as I could around the house. I wasn't fast, but there wasn't a speck of dust to be found. I saw to that. She kissed me as she pulled on her coat. "You stay out of trouble, Danny."

"You, too." And with that, she was gone, out to earn our daily bread. I went back to watching the tailor shop, pulling out some binoculars from the drawer. Sadie didn't like me using them, she thought it made things too personal, but I was just itching to see what went on that shop.

Of course from where I was, I couldn't and it never occurred to me to walk across the street and go in. Of course, there were stairs down into the shop and stairs and me ain't exactly friends. I can work them, but it takes a while. Instead I watched, and made random marks in columns and pretended I was making a difference.

It was a typical Tuesday morning, cold and wet. I hated to see Sadie pull on her thin jacket and kerchief. I knew she would be freezing before she got halfway to the bus stop. I was angry and bitter, a luxury I don't usually allow myself. I swore when our next check came, the first thing I was getting her was a nice heavy jacket.

I'm not exactly sure what caught my eye, a flash of something in the tailor shop. I grabbed my binoculars and trained them on the spot. The blond guy and his dark-haired companion were fighting with someone. I didn't recognize the person and had no idea where he'd come from. I'd written a question mark by his entry.

There was another flash and something shattered the door's window. I ducked without needing to. There was something very wrong going on. The old guy, Del Floria, the owner was sprawled over the counter.

Without thinking, I grabbed the phone and dialed the operator.

"Operator, number please?"

"Fire, operator, fire! People are trapped inside." I altered my voice without thinking about it as I stumbled over the address and replaced the receiver.

Apparently, the stranger had brought friends and they didn't look like nice people. I picked the receiver back up and dialed 'O' again. The same operator answered.

"Operator. Number please?"

"I think someone's murdering a child." Again I changed my voice and gave the address. There, if that didn't do it, nothing would.

The fight seemed to have spilled out onto the street and I could hear screaming. It seemed like it went on forever before I heard sirens. Give that operator credit, she called out everything including the light brigade. The arrival of the fire trucks and a half dozen police cars were enough to chase the stranger and his friends away.

Dark Haired Guy was talking to the fire chief and didn't seem to know what was going on. Blond had a trickle of blood on the side of his face and he was walking with the firemen as they carried the old guy out on a gurney. Then suddenly they all turned and looked directly at me. I dropped from view, too quickly for them to really be able to see anything.

When Sadie got home that night, I was ready with my story. She listened to every word and merely shook her head. "You're lucky they didn't arrest you for making prank calls."

"They don't know who did it. There is no problem." Then there came a knock on the door and my voice caught. "Or maybe there is." I flashed her a lopsided smile.

Sadie ran and peeked out the peephole. "It's the blond one." She looked again. "And Cutie is with him. They're gonna arrest you and take you away, Danny."

"Calm down, Sadie, and let them in. You can't arrest a man for looking."

Poor Sadie, I thought she was going to pass out from being so close to Cutie, or Mr. Solo as he introduced himself. His partner was Illya Kuryakin.

"How's your head?" I asked as we awkwardly shook hands.

"It **was** you who called in that false alarm." It seemed to give his pleasure to announce that.

"Okay, so I owe you lunch," Solo muttered and Kuryakin grinned.

Sadie put her arm around me. "Is Danny in trouble? He was just trying to help."

"And help he did. If he hadn't interfered when he did, we might have lost some good people. Thanks to him Del is going to make it to press pants another day."

"I'm glad. He seems like a nice enough sort."

"That's because you've never caught him on a bad day," Solo said with a smile. That's when I realized they were trying to lighten the mood.

Mr. Solo studied my leg, but for some reason, I didn't feel awkward. "How did you know we needed help?"

"Um." Suddenly I felt intrusive as if what I did was very wrong.

"Show them, Danny." Sadie said and then grabbed one of my notebooks. "He watches all day. He makes notes about who goes in and leaves, when and how often."

Kuryakin flipped through one. "Impressive, but a bit difficult to decipher."

I held up my wrecked hand. "I'm teaching myself to write with my left, but it's a slow process."

"What do you do for a living, Mr. Jacobs?"

I had a feeling he already knew the answer. "I don't. I was injured. Nobody wants to hire a guy who can't walk or write."

The two men exchanged amused looks. "Oh, I can think of one person who would."

That was how I got my job at UNCLE. These days I watch monitors and record what I see. It's not that much different from what I did from our living room window, but the pay's a heck of a lot better. Even more than that, I'm making a difference, I'm somebody again. I save lives and property just like UNCLE saved me. And Sadie? She's loving her new winter coat.


End file.
